2010 – The Thirteenth Annual Report

Foreword

The National Health Service is entering a new era. Over the past 5 years quality has moved up the health care agenda and we are now told ‘quality is the only organising principle of the NHS’. If we measure quality then working together we can make that ambitious statement a reality. The dimensions of quality have been described; in health care quality is safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable and patient centred. To these original 6 dimensions the Royal College of Physicians, prompted by the UK renal community, added sustainability in 2010.

The challenge for the kidney community is therefore to define quality across the kidney care pathways in these terms and to identify indicators that are robust, easy to measure and will help teams to deliver better value care.

Our UK Renal Registry has a central role in improving the care and outcomes for people with advanced kidney disease. The data generated from individual patient clinical encounters, collated into information returns by kidney units, then analysed and displayed by the Registry staff have enabled the kidney community to understand many biomedical and epidemiological aspects of renal replacement therapy better. This knowledge has been the basis of many quality improvement initiatives over the last decade whilst also generating new questions and research. The Renal Registry has fostered a culture of healthy competition between units and sharing of best
practice between teams.

Looking back, the UK Renal Registry with the Renal Association guidelines, then referred to as standards, and the Kidney Alliance bringing patients and professionals together were the corner stones of our 21st century strategy. The Registry provided the data, highlighted the inequalities and by demonstrating variance stimulated improvements. These trends are documented in this report.

Looking forward, our Registry remains at the vanguard. The infrastructure and where-with-all to extend the scope of the Renal Registry wider than renal replacement therapy to encompass additional aspects of advanced kidney care and also to move beyond biometrics to other aspects of kidney care quality and patient experience is in place. Quality is the only organising principle for kidney care; we need to measure and act on all 7 dimensions.